My friends Rollie and Hein live in Amersfoort, in an older part of this old city, located near Utrecht. It is such a joy to wander around the central core of Amersfoort and try to imagine how life must have been over the past 500 years. Canals run through the center of this city and old buildings line both sides of very narrow streets. Suddenly they all seem to emerge into a central square, where the open-air markets are held, even today.

The Inn where I stayed is also in an old building; the owners tell me it was, around 1650, a tobacco- processing facility... hence it's name- Logies de Tabaksplant-. Now it is a bed-and-breakfast Inn. Nicely modernized, it even offers a room designed for the wheelchair user.

Lining the inner-city canals are some lovely old homes - some have little garden-rooms in back, too. We would walk along then streets and dream of owning one of them - but in the current economy they are beyond our purses. Yes, I would love to live in Holland for a few years, at least.

These two photos are of city landmarks -
this is the old tower, in the southeast corner of the old wall.

If you can spot one of these towers you can't get very lost
in the maze of zigzag narrow streets and footpaths.

Canals run through the core of the city.

Some little rooms were right over the canal itself.

Some of the bridges were just footpaths - and for bicycles.

Trees were beginning to flower, too.